Gochugaru Revisited

I'm proud to say again I am a first-rate condiment aholic/slave/whore/devotee/whatever you want to call it. I. Love. Condiments. And I love my most recent discovery - gochugaru - because with it I can make gochugaru paste. You might remember this paste from the Kimchi chronicles two weeks ago. It's swett and spicy and salty, the trinity of condiments. Here is the ingredient list again but remember, this is for a large batch. I'll make it again soon but cut it all in half. And I will most likely cut the onions even more. Even though I plan to do more cooking with it (as opposed to just slathering it raw onto food), I found the onion flavor too strong.

1 cup gochu garu (coarse Korean red pepper flakes)

3 Tbs. dark brown sugar

1 Tbs. salt 1 medium apple, unpeeled, cored and quartered

1/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped

6 to 8 oil-packed anchovy fillets, drained

5 cloves garlic, peeled

1 oz. (about 1 inch) fresh ginger, peeled and thickly sliced

To make the paste, combine the gochu garu with 1/2 cup water. Add the sugar and salt and mix well. Set this aside. In a food processor, purée the apple, onion, anchovies, garlic, and ginger until smooth. Add the purée to the red pepper paste and mix thoroughly. Then you can use it liberally on everything, even asparagus and eggs.

I hadn't intended to use it on this dish because I wasn't sure if the ginger would clash with the olive oil and parmesean cheese. Not to worry. The gochugaru made the whole thing sparkle.

I also use it on toast, on rice, mixed into homemade dal, and I even made a loaf of bread with it. It was good.